A World of Pain

Curious Cases

BBC

Science

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2018

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Why do people experience pain differently when they go through the same event?" asks Claire Jenkins from Cwmbran in Wales.

Professor of Pain Research, Irene Tracey, welcomes Adam in to the room she calls her 'Torture Chamber'. Burning, electrocuting, lasering and piercing are all on the menu, but which will hurt the most?

Hannah speaks to Steve Pete from Washington who has a rare genetic condition which means he doesn't feel pain. For chronic sufferers, this sounds like heaven, but a life without pain has brought untold suffering to him and his family, including the tragic story of his brother, Chris.

We look at how the body creates pain, why some people feel it more than others, and how this knowledge could help scientists treat pain more effectively in the future.

Presenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry Producer: Michelle Martin.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Dr Adam Rutherford. And I'm Dr Hannah Fry. And you are going to send us your everyday
0:10.8	mysteries. And we are going to investigate them using the power of science. Science. I like it.
0:18.2	It's the last episode in the current run of the curious cases rather than a fry. Hooray!
0:26.8	Well not hooray is ending but we will be back for series 12. I mean I stop counting after eight
0:33.2	to be honest. I count every single minute. Thing is they in this episode now we've made Michelle
0:40.4	run and then between us we regret making Michelle run. I regret it maybe four times more than you.
0:48.0	A little bit more because the thing is what we forgot about Michelle is that she's the one that
0:51.4	makes all the decisions about what goes in the program. So this episode is about pain and you can
0:57.5	guess what happens next. Yeah here we go. Bring the pain.
1:09.9	A painful subject in this episode. Yes sent into curious cases at BBC.co.uk by someone that I'm
1:16.2	not entirely that keen on called Claire Jenkins from Cumbran in Wales. A bit harsh Adam.
1:22.0	Claire asked why do people experience pain differently when they go through the same event.
1:26.5	Oh is this the bit that you've got an issue with? Because she goes on to say can you test Adam's
1:31.6	pain threshold all in the name of science of course. All in the name of science. Now never
1:37.1	want to miss the opportunity to inflict some form of psychological or actual physical damage to me.
1:43.2	Our producer Michelle bundled me on to a train to Oxford to meet professor of pain Irene Tracy.
1:49.8	When we want to understand pain we tend to inflict pain experimentally using three different
1:54.9	modalities. One is the thermal domains we might burn you or we might freeze you. The other one is
1:59.6	the chemical domains. I'm going to put some chili pepper cream on you and then the third type
2:03.6	is mechanical. That's sort of where we'll poke them. What joy I have in front of me. Thank you
2:09.1	everyone involved in this whole process. Right so first we'll get the capsacin on this. This is a
2:13.4	chili pepper cream I'm going to put some gloves on which basically binds to a very specialized
	...

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